Eternal X 1.2

Discuss and unveil current Marathon projects.
Post Reply
User avatar
Wrkncacnter
Vidmaster
Posts: 1953
Joined: Jan 29th '06, 03:51
Contact:

I suppose I never considered the fact that someone would take screenshots with extravision on to show off lighting. *Maybe* that could explain it, but it still seems like you can see way too far down that hallway if it's lit 0%.

In any case, if the inside walls of the hallway are 0%, and the inside of the window is 0%, there's still no differential shading.
User avatar
Pfhorrest
Vidmaster
Posts: 1847
Joined: Oct 12th '07, 22:08
Location: California
Contact:

FWIW I took that screenshot, not her, and that's on a dream level with permanent extravision. Its main purpose was to show that the lights from those windows are no longer cast directly inward from the wall, but in line with the direction of the sun. I wasn't even thinking of trying to look for or show off differential lighting there.
User avatar
Wrkncacnter
Vidmaster
Posts: 1953
Joined: Jan 29th '06, 03:51
Contact:

Yeah, I just got stuck on the fact that that sure doesn't look like 0% to me, but that's not really the point here. I think the comments about differential shading apply to pretty much every screenshot in this thread. I realize that you don't have time to fix it all, and I believe the point has been made, so I won't worry about it anymore.
User avatar
ravenshining
Vidmaster
Posts: 892
Joined: Jun 17th '17, 22:50
Location: Hawai'i

Wrkncacnter wrote:I suppose I never considered the fact that someone would take screenshots with extravision on to show off lighting. *Maybe* that could explain it, but it still seems like you can see way too far down that hallway if it's lit 0%.

In any case, if the inside walls of the hallway are 0%, and the inside of the window is 0%, there's still no differential shading.
Wait, I do want to understand this correctly. Are you and Treelama saying there needs to be three levels of shading here? So the sunlit areas are 100%, the shaded inside edge of the window should be 0%, and the inside walls be 50%?

So instead of this, which is how I had it, using 0% in all unlit interior areas and 100% in sunlit interior areas:
ThePhilosophyofTimeTravel_002020.jpg
...are you saying I need to make the wall lighter than the shaded windowsill, like this?
ThePhilosophyofTimeTravel_002010.jpg
But then it pops out looking weird, so I'd have to lighten the floor and celing to match:
ThePhilosophyofTimeTravel_0005.jpg
I guess that helps with the windowsill a little, but I think it looks better how I had it.
User avatar
Wrkncacnter
Vidmaster
Posts: 1953
Joined: Jan 29th '06, 03:51
Contact:

Just as a general rule, any time the angle of the wall changes, the lighting should change as well. It doesn't necessarily have to be by a lot, but any change at all helps with showing depth.

What I personally would do in this situation, now that I'm understanding the exact values of lights, would be to change the lighting to 10% from 0% in my screenshot with the red lines. And that's pretty much it. The inside walls could stay 0%, the bottom of the window is already as light as it can get, it's just that the side of the window is at a 90 degree angle from the rest of the wall, so it should have some different lighting.
User avatar
Pfhorrest
Vidmaster
Posts: 1847
Joined: Oct 12th '07, 22:08
Location: California
Contact:

These base textures are pretty boring but here's today's progress anyway:
Screen Shot 2018-02-13 at 11.40.08 PM.jpg
Serendipitously, you can compare it with its predecessor since a snippet thereof is visible in the other texture next to it. (The new texture is the far left, the old texture is the one with the vertical stripes in the doorframe).

I also want to say that I appreciate the conversation happening about differential lighting.
User avatar
treellama
Vidmaster
Posts: 6110
Joined: Jun 2nd '06, 02:05
Location: Pittsburgh
Contact:

Wrkncacnter wrote:Just as a general rule, any time the angle of the wall changes, the lighting should change as well. It doesn't necessarily have to be by a lot, but any change at all helps with showing depth.
I will add, you don't always have to accurately reflect the light source, or use a set "this angle is always X% of this angle" formula (although that's how the Shade plugin in Weland works, it's just to get started). Sometimes even walls that are at the same angle need different shades:
Grendel wrote:Often our use of differential shading doesn't follow the laws of nature. Here, the two walls facing the player should have the same light intensity, but we've ignored it for better gameplay. Hastur's a big fan of gameplay, and he doesn't really enjoy the real world much.
Image Image
User avatar
Pfhorrest
Vidmaster
Posts: 1847
Joined: Oct 12th '07, 22:08
Location: California
Contact:

I just realized why that last texture was even less impressive than I had hoped: I forgot to turn on the bump map in MML. Here's a better shot with it on now:
Screen Shot 2018-02-14 at 8.55.40 AM.jpg
User avatar
President People
Mjolnir Mark IV
Posts: 352
Joined: May 4th '10, 00:22

Round 4's ready to roll.
Spoiler:

Code: Select all

Bugs still present:

• During the M2 Alien Weapon firing animation, the sprite flashes out occasionally.


Eternal-Data Changes:
 · Added transparent bitmaps/glowmaps for the Nightmare.



Eternal Scripts Changes:
• xhd-effects.mml
 · Removed clut attribute from the compiler bolt's first set of definitions, allowing
   it to cover all undefined cluts and clut variants (namely, Infravision). 

• spooky.mml
 · Added opengl sprites and glowmaps for the Nightmare.
 · Reproduced code for the unused Banshee graphics. 



Eternal Plugins Changes:

• Eternal-HUD
 · Fixed off-color skull graphic (Though I doubt it'll see much use)



Eternal Shapes Changes:

• (0) Interface
 · Updated bar HUD graphics to match Tacticus' floating HUD updates. 

• (1) Weapons In Hand (True Color)
 · Edited Plasma Rifle bitmaps to be properly centered. The frames were left
   untouched so that the HD Plugin remained intact. 
 · Cyan and magenta added to color table as opaque colors. 
 · Errant transparent pixels corrected on several weapons (quality is still in
   question on a few of these). 

• (4) Explosion Effects
 · Changed Minimum Lightness of M1 Enforcer bullets' frames from 0% to 100%
 · Re-added the old WMC blasts, and adjusted scaling of each frame to match
   Tacticus' placeholders as closely as possible. 

• (4) Hunter
 · Added sequence: "hunter melee"
 · Commandeered unused frames 0-15 for melee sequence. 

• (7) Items
 · Made black borders on Tacticus' bitmaps transparent
 · Added old bitmaps back into extra slots for posterity.
 · Edited Mothrid's 5th bitmap. The middle tentacle should look a bit less goofy now. 
 · Further slowed Mothrid's chase sequence. 

• (10) S'pht'Kr
 · Edited Sequence "Nightmare Attacking": Fadeout frame added.
 · More general re-centering of Nightmare's frames.

• (14) Enforcer
 · Removed static pixels from bitmap 060
 · Edited the weapon out from bitmap 040
 · Added bitmaps 75-79 and the accompanying frames, some quick edits for use as the
   Scatter Enforcer's melee attack.
 · Added sequence "flame melee"
 · Added sequence "scatter melee"

• (16) S'pht
 · Changed Sequence "Banshee Attacking" from 4 views to 8 views. The 90° and 270°
   angles were being flipped for some reason.



Eternal Physics Changes:

• Seeking S'pht Bolt
 · Changed Color Table from 02 to 01 (green to yellow), so that it matches the
   contrail.

• Fast Drone Bolt
 · Changed sequence from -1 to 4. 

• Minor Drone
 · Reduced melee range from 2048 to 768

• Major Drone
 · Reduced melee range from 2048 to 768

• Big Minor Drone
 · Reduced melee range from 2048 to 768

• Big Major Drone
 · Reduced melee range from 2048 to 768

• Minor Enforcer (Scatter)
 · Changed melee sequence from 0 to 12
 · Reduced melee range from 2048 to 832

• Major Enforcer (Napalm)
 · Changed melee sequence from 10 to 11
 · Reduced melee range from 2048 to 832

• Minor Hunter
 · Changed melee X-origin from 0 to 204
 · Changed melee sequence from 0 to 10
 · Reduced melee Repetitions from 1 to 0
 · Reduced melee range from 2048 to 972

• Major Hunter
 · Changed melee X-origin from 0 to 204
 · Changed melee sequence from 0 to 10
 · Reduced melee Repetitions from 2 to 1
 · Reduced melee range from 2048 to 972

• Mother of All Hunters
 · Changed melee X-origin from 0 to 256
 · Changed melee sequence from 0 to 10
 · Reduced melee Repetitions from 5 to 2
 · Reduced melee range from 4096 to 1024

• Tiny Pfhor (Headless/Mothrid)

• Tiny Bob (Nightmare)
 · Changed ranged impact effect from Marine Hit to Bob Hit
 · Modified Behavior flags:
  [√] Stays With Clear Shot



Eternal Sounds Changes:
Updated bar HUD sprites to match the new floating ones, as well as fixed Tacticus' low-res weapon/item bitmaps, added transparency/glow .mml to the Nightmare, stretched the Mothrid's float sequence a bit more, and fixed up the melee attacks for the Drones, Enforcers, and Hunters.
Love Marathon, and also play Doom on modern source ports? You might like these skins!
User avatar
ravenshining
Vidmaster
Posts: 892
Joined: Jun 17th '17, 22:50
Location: Hawai'i

I continue to be in awe of your work, Pfhorrest! And I appreciate the lessons on better mapmaking technique, I'll carry the learning over to Redux.

I don't suppose you might be inclined to make bump maps for Marathon's textures when you're finished? ;-D
User avatar
Pfhorrest
Vidmaster
Posts: 1847
Joined: Oct 12th '07, 22:08
Location: California
Contact:

Honestly my first impulse is to try to find some way I can say "yes" to that, but I know I shouldn't take on more work than I already have now that I'm finally making some progress on the projects I've already started. Also it would be a lot harder than Eternal stuff because I'd basically have to recreate all of the HD M1 textures from scratch as a part of that process, since I don't have the original PSDs (and even PSDs would be a pain compared to the AIs I'm working with).

Today's progress:
Screen Shot 2018-02-14 at 10.39.47 PM.jpg
ETA: I didn't see President People's post above until now. Those new nightmares are freakin' spooktacular! I think I'm pretty satisfied with all the new monsters now. Has anyone else checked them out? Have any feedback on them?

P.S. I renamed spooky.mml to xhd-monsters.mml, just FYI.
User avatar
General Tacticus
Cyborg
Posts: 209
Joined: Apr 5th '13, 04:27

Hey, It seems like I've found a fix for the enforcer gun flickering.

You need to set the ticks/round for both triggers of the enforcer gun to 6 instead of -1, it keeps the same fire rate but removes the flickering. Not sure why, but it works.
User avatar
President People
Mjolnir Mark IV
Posts: 352
Joined: May 4th '10, 00:22

General Tacticus wrote:Hey, It seems like I've found a fix for the enforcer gun flickering.

You need to set the ticks/round for both triggers of the enforcer gun to 6 instead of -1, it keeps the same fire rate but removes the flickering. Not sure why, but it works.
I just tried this and it doesn't seem to have worked for me. Can you confirm that you were holding the primary trigger only? If the secondary trigger is being held at any point, it looks completely normal, which I find most baffling.

I created new sequences and frames to see if there was something wrong with the old ones, but no dice. It must be the weapon itself, then? It matches the original almost exactly, aside from the "random ammo on pickup" and "disappears after use" flags, the primary ammo type, the rounds per magazine, and the weapon class (all of which I tried changing).

If it's not the physics or shapes, it could be some rogue .mml string?
Love Marathon, and also play Doom on modern source ports? You might like these skins!
User avatar
General Tacticus
Cyborg
Posts: 209
Joined: Apr 5th '13, 04:27

Yeah, I just held down the primary trigger. I was also using a different mapset to avoid the imbedded physics.
User avatar
President People
Mjolnir Mark IV
Posts: 352
Joined: May 4th '10, 00:22

Strange. I keep my test maps unmerged, so that's not it. Do you mind sending your edited physics file so I can try it out?
Love Marathon, and also play Doom on modern source ports? You might like these skins!
User avatar
General Tacticus
Cyborg
Posts: 209
Joined: Apr 5th '13, 04:27

Huh, looks like I messed up somehow. Having ticks/round at 6 isn't working, but having ticks/round and recovery ticks both at 3 does. I must be going mad or something.

Here's the physics file. (it is a few versions old, mind you)
Attachments
Eternal-Physics fix.phyA.zip
(4.17 KiB) Downloaded 243 times
User avatar
President People
Mjolnir Mark IV
Posts: 352
Joined: May 4th '10, 00:22

General Tacticus wrote:Huh, looks like I messed up somehow. Having ticks/round at 6 isn't working, but having ticks/round and recovery ticks both at 3 does. I must be going mad or something.

Here's the physics file. (it is a few versions old, mind you)
Ah thanks, this one works. Very strange that a workaround like this was needed, but I'm glad that flickering can finally go away.

Here's the updated physics file.
Love Marathon, and also play Doom on modern source ports? You might like these skins!
User avatar
Pfhorrest
Vidmaster
Posts: 1847
Joined: Oct 12th '07, 22:08
Location: California
Contact:

While you guys are touching up weapons stuff, any chance between the two of you you could incorporate the changes made to M1R's Staff into Eternal's as well?

I was going to ask "but with the pink crystal still", except looking into things it seems like all the original Pfhor have a green (or maybe blue?) crystal in both in-game sprites and in chapter screens, so I'm not sure where the pink crystal in Eternal came from. Looking in Eternal now, it seems that my fighter sprites also have pink crystals. I don't remember how that happened. President People, do you think you could look into that and maybe set them back to green again? Unless people like the pink better? I really don't remember what's going on there.

Also, it seems like there are not new item sprites for the Fusion weapons or ammo in the Eternal guns plugin. Tacticus, any chance you could render some side-view frames of those? (And President People, any chance you could update your modified player sprites to be holding the new versions of the weapons?)
User avatar
General-RADIX
Cyborg
Posts: 300
Joined: Aug 8th '16, 15:02

Yannow, I don't think I ever thought much of that before you brought it up. I'd suggest that it was done to help the staffs stand out against the environment, but one of those environments is predominantly pink itself...

(At any rate, I wouldn't be opposed to them reverting to green)
welcome to the scene of the crash
patrick
Mjolnir Mark IV
Posts: 466
Joined: Sep 22nd '08, 17:10
Location: 末法

pink is better, forrest.
User avatar
Pfhorrest
Vidmaster
Posts: 1847
Joined: Oct 12th '07, 22:08
Location: California
Contact:

Tonight's boring incremental progress:
Screen Shot 2018-02-15 at 11.21.29 PM.jpg
On a different note, I've got someone else who's maybe interested in helping with the to-do list of little fixes from Crater Creator's and Ryoko's reviews, but who's finding looking for to-do things in the reviews tedious, and wondered if there was any way that stuff could get put into the todo list on Eternal's github page. I barely have time to even do a texture a day like this, so might anyone else want to help in this boring little way that doesn't require much skill? Just read through both of their reviews (and if you want to, any other reviews too) and add any specific suggested change to this list?
User avatar
treellama
Vidmaster
Posts: 6110
Joined: Jun 2nd '06, 02:05
Location: Pittsburgh
Contact:

Pfhorrest wrote:I was going to ask "but with the pink crystal still", except looking into things it seems like all the original Pfhor have a green (or maybe blue?) crystal in both in-game sprites and in chapter screens, so I'm not sure where the pink crystal in Eternal came from.
Image
User avatar
President People
Mjolnir Mark IV
Posts: 352
Joined: May 4th '10, 00:22

Pfhorrest wrote:While you guys are touching up weapons stuff, any chance between the two of you you could incorporate the changes made to M1R's Staff into Eternal's as well?

I was going to ask "but with the pink crystal still", except looking into things it seems like all the original Pfhor have a green (or maybe blue?) crystal in both in-game sprites and in chapter screens, so I'm not sure where the pink crystal in Eternal came from. Looking in Eternal now, it seems that my fighter sprites also have pink crystals. I don't remember how that happened. President People, do you think you could look into that and maybe set them back to green again? Unless people like the pink better? I really don't remember what's going on there.
I haven't been following the thread, so I'm not sure what I'm looking for, but I can have a peek.

As for why the shock staves are pink, the vanilla fighters are split into two colors: blue crystals for melee and green crystals for projectile. A unified color may have been chosen so that both varieties dropping the same weapon could be justified.

I'm fine with either color, but I'm leaning towards pink. (Probably because I don't have to change any sprites that way! ;)) I've also always liked that M2 chapter screen.
And President People, any chance you could update your modified player sprites to be holding the new versions of the weapons?
That could take a while, but I can give it a shot. I'll probably start with the WMC and Grav Blades. Taking consistency with monster sprites into account, that would leave just the Fusion Rifle. The Havoc Rifle sprites in the marine's hand aren't scaled very well (as in not at all), so I may go over those one more time.
Love Marathon, and also play Doom on modern source ports? You might like these skins!
User avatar
ravenshining
Vidmaster
Posts: 892
Joined: Jun 17th '17, 22:50
Location: Hawai'i

Well, if you do want to go green, these are the sprites as I've tweaked them. I made the crystal very slightly transparent around the edges, put a glow map, and made them all power of two DDS files..

Sequence data:
Spoiler:
assuming 256x256 bitmaps except frame 1 of the attack which is 128x256 (tallwise):

Code: Select all

idle:
scale 5
       origin
file   x   y  light
10.dds 80 215   0

attack:
frames      4
ticks/frame 3
key frame   3
period     12
scale       5
       origin
file   x   y  light
11.dds 80 215 100 5
12.dds 48 215 100 5
13.dds 48 165 100 5
14.dds 48 165 100 5

physics:
Idle height:   1.00
Bob Amplitude: 0.04
Kick Height:   0.00
Reload Height: 0.00
Idle Width:    0.20
Attachments
10.dds.tar.gz
(1021.48 KiB) Downloaded 236 times
User avatar
Pfhorrest
Vidmaster
Posts: 1847
Joined: Oct 12th '07, 22:08
Location: California
Contact:

President People wrote:As for why the shock staves are pink, the vanilla fighters are split into two colors: blue crystals for melee and green crystals for projectile. A unified color may have been chosen so that both varieties dropping the same weapon could be justified.

I'm fine with either color, but I'm leaning towards pink.
Okay, let's just stick with pink then.

Thanks!
Post Reply